2018 Hugo Awards Voter Packet Now Available

Worldcon 76 has issued the 2018 Hugo Awards Voter Packet, a collection of finalists for the 2018 Hugo Awards made available to members of Worldcon 76 to assist them in making informed decisions when voting on this year’s Hugo Awards. The packet is available for download from the Worldcon 76 Hugo Awards website in the “Hugo Voter Packet” section. Members of Worldcon 76 can sign in using their Hugo Award voting credentials that were sent to them when the final Hugo Award ballot was issued.

Only members of Worldcon 76 can access the 2018 Hugo Award Voter Packet and vote on the 2018 Hugo Awards. To become a member of Worldcon 76, see the 2018 Worldcon’s membership page.

Worldcon 76 will shortly send an announcement regarding the availability of the Hugo Voter Packet to all members who registered their e-mail address with the convention. This mailing will include a copy of the member’s voting credentials (membership number and voting PIN). Members can request a copy of their credentials using the 2018 Hugo Awards PIN lookup page.

Works appear in the 2018 Hugo Award Voter Packet through the courtesy and cooperation of the authors, artists, creators, and rights-holders of the shortlisted works. Not all shortlisted works will necessarily appear in the Hugo Voter Packet. No finalist is required to make their work available for the Hugo Voter Packet. We encourage you to kindly share your appreciation of their contributions with the finalists and their publishers who make the works available for your review. The Hugo Award Voter Packet will remain available until the close of voting on July 31, 2018.

Worldcon 76 is running both the 2018 Hugo Awards and the 1943 Retrospective Hugo Awards. A 1943 Retro-Hugo Voter Packet is in preparation. Worldcon 76 expects to release it shortly and will made an announcement when they do so.

Direct all questions about the 2018 and 1943 Hugo Voter Packets and about voting procedures for the 2018 and 1943 Hugo Awards to the Worldcon 76 Hugo Award Administrators. Do not send questions to the Hugo Awards web site. The Hugo Awards web site does not manage the Hugo Voter Packet, nor do we administer the Hugo Awards voting. All of these functions are managed by the current Worldcon.

Just a comment to publishers. I would NEVER vote for a book unless I read the whole thing. Those publishers who just want to provide an exerpt are SOL in my opinion. As it happens, I have already read 2 of those books for which only exerpts were provided, but I don’t sign up to just get free books, but to evaluate the previous years product in my favorite genre. If someone thinks the exerpt may prompt me to run out and buy the book, it’s not going to happen this late in the voting season when I barely have time to get through the rest of the material–make it easy, or it won’t be on my ballot. Or at least not unless the packet gets released before May 29 when I already have a lot of books from the current year to read, too.

This is a reminder that publishers/authors/artists/rights-holders are under absolutely no obligation whatsoever to provide anything to the members of Worldcon. Sharing their shortlisted works is something they do at their own discretion, and through their own generosity. We’d also like to remind people that the practice of sharing a “Hugo Voter Packet” is only a few years old, and that it is not a guarantee of Worldcon membership. Members are, of course, completely entitled to mark their ballots in any way they like for whatever reason they want to do so.

I don’t expect to get all of the Hugo entries “free,” and that’s not why I’m disappointed with excerpts. I buy plenty of stuff through the year and make sure my library acquires plenty more. As mentioned, I’ve already read some entries that aren’t provided as full text to voters, but my time this late is limited, and I won’t waste it with less than complete items. I have often experienced changes of opinion well after the first 20% of a book. As a professional reviewer I’ve learned to keep both my mouth shut and my fingers off the keyboard until finishing a book. A librarian, I use my library a lot but the Hugo nominations themselves produce long waiting lists, and I am still waiting for a couple of things for which I placed holds several months ago. With limited time, I’ve gone on to reading materials that were provided in entirety in the packet, and making some wonderful discoveries. Those excerpts for which I haven’t been able to acquire full text will show up on my ballot below the “no award” vote.